She Made me Smile
by RainbowsNSmiles5
Summary: Vaughn recalls a few memories of when Chelsea made him smile. The story is much better than the summary! :P Chelsea x Vaughn One-shot!


~ She made me Smile ~

Chelsea…

She was a strange girl; always jumping up and down in unexplained excitement and talking on and on about food. The way she ate contradicted her size. I guess all that work on her farm burned all of the fats she consumed daily. She was a small girl that wore a bright red bandana over her straight, brunette hair. She never took off that bandana, like how I never take off my hat. Sometimes she would try to pry it off of my head.

"C'mon! What's under that ten-gallon hat?" Chelsea asked with her curious look about her.

I found myself backing up a step each time she jumped out to snatch my beloved hat away. "Hair," I said coldly.

Chelsea dived down and wrapped her arms around my ankles, causing me to fall on my back. She smirked in triumph and pinned me down to the ground. "There's gotta be more than just hair!" She pulled my hat off and ran away a few feet so that I couldn't snatch it back. "Oh, Vaughn! You look so cuuute without your cowboy hat!"

My face burned. "W-What?"

She giggled. "And I've never seen you smile before too!"

I lifted my fingers to my face and found my lips unusually curled upwards. It was a strange thing to find at the time. It was the first time she ever made me smile. It was weird how she could make me crack a smile without my awareness.

Another time she made me smile was on a sunny Thursday afternoon. I always walked around the forest on the western side of Sunny Island on Thursdays when I didn't have much work left.

Wondering around the shady forest calmed me, which was what I needed from time to time because of work. Don't get me wrong; I loved my job as a livestock dealer. Caring for animals and giving them a home is one of the most rewarding things you can do with your life. But it was still a tiring, and stressful job.

As I walked around the forest, I heard giggles. It was very easy to recognize whose giggles they were. There was no doubt in my mind about where they were coming from. I went further on the path I was on, turned on the first corner I could and felt a million butterflies flutter around in my stomach. I saw a giggling Chelsea being tackled and smothered with kisses by a stray dog. She glanced over in my direction and grinned brightly when she recognized my famous, black cowboy hat.

"Vaughn, look! I made a new friend!" She said excitedly. She always loved making new friends, even if it was an animal.

I smirked and bent down to pet the dog. It was dirty and looked famished. It needed a new home. "Well, are you going to name it?" I asked.

"Of course!" She looked at the dog with a blank expression. "How do you know if it's a boy or girl?"

I nearly fell over. "Just let me check!" I gently picked up the dog and took a look at its…well…private parts. "It's a girl."

"Hmmm." She tapped her finger to her chin thoughtfully. "Then I will name her Charlie!"

"Charlie? Isn't that a boy's name?"

She puffed out her cheeks. "No! Charlie can be a girl's name too!"

I sighed. "Whatever…"

She picked Charlie up and cradled her in her arms like a baby. "I can't wait to take you home to the farm where you can run around! Oh! And I can feed you, and pet you, and give you baths…" She went on and on. Charlie wagged her tail frantically and licked Chelsea while she was in mid-sentence.

The corners of my mouth lifted more and more with each passing second of watching Chelsea giggle and play with Charlie. Charlie was a lucky dog to have Chelsea. She was completely cared for after Chelsea took her in. The two were inseparable and always visited me at Mirabelle's Animal Shop when I was busy discussing business with Mirabelle and sometimes her daughter, Julia. It was annoying to have Chelsea distract me while I was working but my mood always went from grumpy to amused when she was around me. I didn't know why my mood changed so suddenly just because of Chelsea but it did and I couldn't deny it, no matter how much I tried at first.

I remember when we had our first kiss. It was one of those moments where you aren't very sure how to react. But yet, I still ended up, unknowingly, smiling after it happened.

It started out when I stopped by Chelsea's farm to herd a recently bought cow into her animal barn. When I exit the barn, I took notice of Chelsea sitting against a horse stable near the farm entrance. She was petting Charlie slowly, her big, blue eyes leaking salty tears down her cheeks. I felt a pain in my gut when I saw her like that. I didn't know exactly how I should approach the situation. Should I have let her alone to calm down on her own and have the picture of her crying stuck in the back of my head for the rest of the day? Was I to talk to her and risk saying the wrong thing and upset her even more? I wasn't an expert when it came to crying girls. Just something about seeing a girl cry makes me hesitate.

I took a deep breath and slowly walked over to her. Chelsea was always giddy and excited when she saw me but not this time. She kept her head down and focused on Charlie's fur coat as she stroked it delicately. I sat myself next to her and she still didn't look up at me. "Is…something wrong, Chelsea?" I asked, concerned.

"No," she said softly. She wasn't believable at all because as she said that she blinked out new tears from her eyes. The teardrops slid down her cheeks, gaining hatred from me.

I wiped them away with my thumb, catching Chelsea off guard. "Chelsea, just tell me."

She sniffled and cleared her throat. "I…don't have a…family to spend the Starry Night Festival with tomorrow…"

I listened and nodded, understanding what she was feeling. "You know," I started, "I don't have any family either. I was abandoned when I was little."

Chelsea finally looked up at me. "You never told me that."

"But," I continued, "when I started working here on the island, Mirabelle and Julia sort of took me in as part of their family and even invite me to spend the Starry Night Festival every year with them. And they always talk so fondly about you… I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you tagged along too…"

"Vaughn? Are you…inviting me to spend the Starry Night Festival with you?"

I couldn't see myself but I was pretty sure that I was red. "Umm, sure…if you want to put it that way, I guess."

Chelsea smiled, showing her little teeth. "Oh, thank you, Vaughn!" She tackled me into a hug and began to giggle when she noticed my crimson face.

On the night of the Starry Night Festival, I waited for Chelsea to show up at Mirabelle's. Her and Julia were still finishing up the dinner and teased me for inviting Chelsea.

"I knew you liked her! I can just tell by the way you act around her," Julia said.

"She is a wonderful girl, Vaughn. You two are just perfect for each other," Mirabelle said.

"Grumpy, cold, anti-social Vaughn and happy, silly Chelsea together," Julia mused. "I guess opposites do attract!"

"Will you two be quiet," I snapped. "We aren't together! The closest we are is friends," I said.

Julia giggled. "Looks like someone is in denial!"

I groaned as I listened to the two continue to talk endlessly about Chelsea and I together. They suddenly stopped when we heard the front door jiggle open. It was Chelsea. She was dressed nice but not too formal. The one thing that stood out the most to me, and apparently Mirabelle and Julia too, was that Chelsea wasn't wearing her red bandana, like she usually did. She looked different but very pretty without it. We looked at her with wide eyes and dropped jaws. She became uneasy from our stares and started to fidget.

"Is there something on my face?" She asked nervously.

"You…you don't have your bandana on!" Julia said in surprise.

She chuckled and ran a hand through her long hair. "Oh, yeah. I thought I should attempt to look good for tonight."

"You look great," I said.

"Thanks." She smiled shyly. A hint a pink brushed against her cheeks.

The food was finished soon after and we all ate. Mirabelle and Julia kept asking Chelsea and I questions about each other in attempt to bring us together. We both found ourselves being embarrassed with whatever they would say about us. When we were finished eating, it was time to go outside and watch the stars. Since Mirabelle and Julia were playing matchmaker, they pushed Chelsea and I to sit alone to watch the stars together.

We laid down together, in the cold night, staring up at the peaceful stars above. It was a beautiful night to be stargazing. I glanced over at Chelsea and saw her shivering and rubbing her arms.

I sighed. I sat up to take off my jacket. "Here," I said as I handed it to her.

"N-No, I'm fine," she said.

"Just take it," I insisted.

She looked at it and hesitantly took it. "That's so nice of you."

I shrugged. "Well, I sure can't sit here and watch you shiver like that."

She wrapped it around her shoulders and grinned at how much warmer she was with it on. After what felt like hours, I picked myself off the ground and brushed off the grass from my clothes. "It's getting late now. I guess I'll walk you home now."

She nodded and allowed me to help her up. I walked her to her doorstep in comfortable silence. Chelsea reached for the doorknob to go inside her home but stopped as if she was afraid to. "Vaughn?"

"What?"

"Thank you for inviting me. It really means a lot to me. I had an amazing time tonight all because of you." She blushed and looked at me with her sapphire eyes.

I felt a blush creep up on my cheeks too. I cleared my throat before saying, "Don't mention it. I had a great time too."

She bit her lip and said something under her breath before she did something that I wasn't expecting at all. She tightly closed her eyes, sprung up on her toes and brushed her lips against mine. My eyes widened from the shock but eventually closed shut. Her arms went around my neck and mine around her waist. Kissing her made me feel something I had never felt before: love.

She reluctantly pulled her lips away from mine and rested her forehead again mine, breathing heavily. "I've wanted to do that a while now," she whispered.

My smile grew and grew until my white teeth winked at her. I had never smiled that big before that day. My smile met her lips this time. My heart was beating rapidly and my arms were pulling Chelsea closer to my body. I didn't want the moment to end.

I smiled even larger on the day we got married. That was the best day of my life. I never expected myself to ever marry a girl like Chelsea. I watched her walk down the aisle towards me. She looked so beautiful in her white dress and veil. Her beauty made my stomach do flips and my forehead form beads of sweat. I couldn't take my eyes off her angelic face. I was so nervous and yet I was so relaxed and happy.

When it was time to exchange our vows, I didn't look off of some note card or piece of paper to read. I spoke what I was feeling at that moment.

"Chelsea, I've never met anyone like you in my life. You're a happy, silly, and generous person that loves to make people smile. And that's what you've done to me. I wasn't known for having a smirk on my face, let alone a smile. You have the ability to make me smile when no one else can. I don't know how you do it but you do. I love you, Chelsea. I want to smile for the rest of my life."

Chelsea wiped tears from her eyes and grinned wider than I've ever seen her grin. She didn't even wait until the priest said so to kiss me.

So, here I am now… I am an old man now with wrinkled skin and wonderful memories that I look back on everyday to smile upon. I have two children and four grandchildren that make life seem like a blessing. I always visit a special spot in the forest with a fresh bouquet of flowers every Sunday. I always give the one person I love more than anything a bouquet of flowers to show her that I still love her.

With the roses in my hands, I look to the ground with sorrow and read the carved tombstone in front of me.

_Chelsea  
><em>

_A happy wife, mother and grandmother._

_She could make anyone smile._

I placed the roses on the green grass in front of the tombstone. A single tear escaped from my eye and rolled slowly down my face, making a trail.

"I miss you, Chelsea."

* * *

><p><strong>** Here is my Chelsea x Vaughn one-shot! Thanks to who voted for this couple on my recent poll!<br>**

**If you would like to read more one-shots then go vote for a couple on the poll on my profile. I've deleted Vaughn off of the options because...well, why vote for him if I've already wrote a one-shot for him? If you're favorite couple isn't an option then feel free to request it to me! :)  
>I will most likely write it unless I've never played that game it is from so go ahead and request! :D<strong>

**I hope you've enjoyed reading this and don't forget to review!****


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